Rapapoj
by Ms.Hedgehog
Summary: The inheritress of an old, great wizard, a gender confused high elf and a mysterious, mostly-drunk, highwayman..or woman . They set out on an adventure, finding out more than they thought they ever could or would.
1. Gertyth's story

**Disclaimer: **We do not own Lord of the Rings...sadly.

--

The wind blew stronger and stronger through the mountain, the sun hiding behind a huge mass of dark clouds. The little village just below the mountain, seemed to have been abandoned, because the windows of the houses had all been covered with planks and the streets were empty. No smoke was coming out from the chimneys.

Exept for one house, the house a little further away from the rest of houses in the village. The one house that stood closest to the mountain, where once the mighty dragon Smaug lived. A glimmering light, just outside the house, started to grow, stronger and stronger. And soon the light had grown into a strong beam, fire which seemed to swallow the person who stood in the middle of it all. Her hair was whipping her face, her cheeks red of frustration and the cold wind. All of sudden, the light died out, and the young woman screamed out in annoyance.

"WHY CAN'T I DO IT, GODDAMNIT!" A girl screamed, frustrated with herself. A young woman, that was standing next to the girl, stroke her daughter's hair and said quietly.

"Calm down, love. We do not want to awake Johuni. And please, do not use such foul language." The girl blushed slightly and turned her gaze towards her feet.

"Yes mother, I'm sorry. I suppose that all this time alone with father has taught me a few inappropriate words. I will not use them again." The woman sighed and looked towards one of the windows of the house.

"Indeed, your father has a bad influence on you that way."

"Mother, you know yourself that its not the only thing that's bad. We can run away mother, he can't do anything to us if we are together." She took her mother's arm and looked up at her with pleeding eyes, the woman gazed at her first, then turned her face away.

"I am sorry, Gwen. But I cannot leave him. You know he would find us, and we can't protect ourselves against him. " Gwen stomped her foot on the ground, and kicked away a small stone.

"Didn't granddad teach you any strong technique which you can use against him.

I know he must have."

"I…cannot use magic. " She replied, looking down at her hands.

"But you are teaching me all of this, I'm sure you can do it!!" Gwen yelled, tears appearing in her eyes.

"When my father left me, I did not know what to do. I was left alone in a country with no one to help me get through the hard things that happened. I owe your father so much for taking me in."

" BUT HE BEATS YOU UP!" Gwen screamed, and now the tears ran down her cheeks, glittering in the faint light of the stars in the sky.

"It is nothing I cannot live with. If I leave him now, we will have nothing."

"We would have our freedom." The woman looked back towards the window and then at her daughter.

"I think we should head back inside, before he realises that I am not sleeping by his side."

"I do not want him to hurt you anymore, mother. Why can't you just listen to me, I-"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" The woman yelled, and gave Gwen a stern look, making her cry again.

"I will not have more of this, let us go back inside."

"Yes mother.."

--

**21 years earlier**

A young woman walked along a well used path, her feet dragging behind her, her hair sticking to her face. She squinted her eyes while looking up at the sun, and then wiped her forehead from sweat.

"This must be one of the warmest days of the year, I do not think it has ever been this hot for years. Alas, why did this have to happen to me, while I am walking!"

Her stomach aced. She had felt constantly ill the past month, and had begged to God that she wouldn't be pregnant. She hardly managed to give herself food at the end of the day by her own, and she would certainly not manage to feed yet another person, plus that nobody would hire a woman with a fatherless child.

After two more hours of walking she could hardly stand, and felt terribly dizzy due to the lack of water. And then, out of nowhere, she saw the first house that happened to be the beginning of a village. Her heart probably struck an extra beat of joy, and somehow she managed to find the last strength left in her muscles and speeded up.

When she finally reached the center of the village the first thing that cought her eye was the sign of The Silver Arrow, the local pub. Hungrier than a starving wolf she entered the pub and sat down next to an old lady and what appeared to be her middle-aged son.

"Excuse me.. I just arrived here, and I'm looking for a job. Do you by any chance know somewhere they are looking for some workers?" The old woman shrugged and turned her face towards her, she looked abit surprised, but then gave her a troublesome smile.

"I'm afraid there are not any jobs around here, sweetness. Everything is runned by Johuni, a nobleman from Gondor. His family has ruled this village for as long as I can remember, and I am after all...veery old." She said, and gave away a cackle.

"Now, let me introduce you to Simon, my grand-grand son. He's Johuni's personal architect, a very successful man! " She gave the young man a proud smile and patted him on his arm.

"..Uhh.. Hi, I'm Gertyth." Chocked by the age of this old woman, she stumbled on her words and then reached out a hand to greet him. The man took her hand and shaked it.

"Welcome to Erebor. What bring you here, Gertyth? I can tell you're not from around here, your accent is different. Let me guess.. Rohan?" She gave him an uncertain smile and started to fiddle with her hair.

"Acctually yes. I grew up in Rohan. Due to certain circumstances I had to move, though.."

"Ah. You don't really want to talk about it? " Gertyth snorted.

"You can tell that easily? I was raised by a man with many friends, but also many enemies. When he went across the sea with the elven kings his before so quiet enemies found it to be a proper time to stop living the life of cowards. They came after me, and I'd rather not face hundreds of thieves and highwaymens alone. "

" Oh, so your old man was one of the good ones? I can clearly hear how you're defending his name. May I ask..who was he? I wont tell anybody so the thieves will find their way here by rumours, don't worry." He said with a reasuring smile.

"Oh my, are you the curious one."

"Behave, son!" The old lady said, and hit her grand-grand son on his arm.

"If my age has brought me any experience about how people work it would be that you have to earn trust from people, not force it. Uh, uh, uh.. Maybe some day you will learn to communicate, you youngsters.. hmpf.."She turned to Gertyth and gave her a soft smile.

"Don't you worry, sweetness. Simon is a good man, but sometimes his mind is like a baby's" She gave him a quick glare.

" ..You just don't tell him nothing if you don't feel like it! Now, do you have any place to rest? You must be exhausted!"

"Uh..Acctually I haven't slept for two days." She said, quite relieved that the old lady wouldnt ask her questions. But she still felt a little suspicious.

The old lady took Gertyth under her arm, and they both walked up the stairs to a room at the end of a hallway.

"You can sleep in here, honey." When Gertyth started to dig in her pocket after money, the old lady stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It's free." She nodded and gave the old lady a warm smile.

--

Later that evening, Gertyth walked down the stairs. She had taken a pleasant shower and combed her hair, she had even put on one of her "not-so-dirty-and-bad-looking" dresses. She looked around in the common room of the inn. When her eyes gazed over at the right end of the room, her eyes locked with a young man's. He was quite handsome, his dark hair cut in a stylish look, he was tall and..well..quite muscular.

"_Oh la la, he doesn't look too bad. Maybe he's rich too..LET'S GO AND SEDUCE HIM!_" She thought, and walked over to the man with swaying hips. When she reached him, he had both raised one of his eyebrows, and he had stretched his back.

"Can I help you with anything, miss..?" He asked, looking down at her, since he was taller than her.

"Gertyth."

"That is your whole name?" She looked down at her hands, and then up at him again.

"I do not wish to tell you about my last name, I am very sorry." He just looked at her and gave away a small smile. Well, what it seemed to be.

" That doesn't matter. However, I need to ask you, why did you approach me?" She snickered.

"Is it not allowed for young women to have a conversationg with handsome men?" Gertyth winked at him and sat down in an armchair that was seated nearby. He raised and eyebrow at her and sat down in the chair at the opposite of the armchair.

"Not many people dare to get close to me willingly. But I assume that since you are new here, I guess?"

"Yes, you are correct."

"Exactly. I suppose you wish to know my name?" She smiled brightly at him and nodded.

"Johuni, son of Jerricky is my name."

After a few drinks, and a couple of hours of talking, Gertyth decided that it was time to head back to her room. She turned to Johuni as to say good night, and shrugged when she saw his eyes. They were so cold, so empty. When he realised that she was staring at him, he gave her a small "smile" and stood up.

" I think it is time to head back to my house. Please, my dear Gertyth. Do think over my offer..I can take care of you." She nodded slightly and also stood up.

" I'm sure you can, Johuni. But I cannot answer so soon. You must let me think."

" I will, now, good night."

"Good night!" And with that he left the inn, while Gertyth walked back upstairs.

--


	2. The Escape

_Disclaimer: I did NOT write lord of the rings (no shit sherlock?!) and this is toootally leaching from tolkiens great idea._

--

With her eyes blinded by grief and fury she couldn't really understand what she had done until it was all over. The livingroom was covered in blood, both Johunis..and her.

Gwen kneeled beside her mother and their forheads touched. Even though Gertyth had been dead for almost an hour her skin still felt warm. Gwen cried, and it seemed as if she could never run out of tears. Johuni moaned of pain from the other side of the room, with his left hand cramping at the area where his right arm used to be. Gwen knew, that even though his bodyguards were used to the noises of her drunk father beating up her mum, they would soon notice that the painful moanings came from the wrong person this time. She had to get away, or this would be her last night alive too.

She stood up, and somehow she managed to lift her lifeless mothers body in her arms. She knew she should be too weak, but her body felt numb and she couldnt feel the pain in her muscles when she overstrained them.

"Give it up, you little piece of shit.." Johunis drunken slur came from the corner where he lay. "You won't ever get away. _Ever_. Do you hear me? I will fuckin' find you and by then you'll WISH you were dead."

Gwen looked at him, and the sight strangely enough made her laugh. And with that as a goodbye, she climbed through the window.

The road to the local inn were too long to carry a dead body. Even though Gwen couldnt bare the thought of leaving her mother she had to face the truth - the time was too short. She dragged the body a bit off the road, where a river rushed, and put down her mothers body at the shore.

"I'm sorry I didn't have time to dig you a grave, mum. But you always said moving water is real freedom, so I hope this will do."

She wrapped her mother in her cloak and fixed it with the elven buckle her mum had given her a long time ago.

"I knew you always said this buckle was too special to ever leave behind, that it's one of the few things grandpa' left you, but I cannot take this with me. It's yours. It always was your dearest memory of him. My cloak and his buckle, we'll always be with you."

And so she pushed the bundle into the river, and after a few seconds it was out of sight.

Gwen wanted to just fall down and cry, to fall asleep to wake up and realise it was all a dream, but instead she started running.

Not at the road this time, because she knew that her fathers followers would be after her at any time, and they wouldnt be on foot. She ran and ran and ran, until she couldn't breathe any longer, she ran until she felt sick, but she never stopped.

Then, finally, she reached the inn. She almost fainted when she reached the backdoor, and when Simon opened the door she literally fell into the room.

"Oh my dear god!" Simon cried. "What happened to you?! Is that blood on your clothes? Are you hurt?!"

"Gwyneth dearest? Is that you?" The old woman had gone blind over the past years, but never lost her sense of what was going on. She sat in her rockingchair next to the stove wrapped in a blanked with her eyes looking around wildly in the room, trying to fix on something.

"Yes Samitha, it's me.." Gwen said between her attempts to catch her breath. "Mum..she's.."

Her sobbing choked her words. "I'm sorry.." she said.

"Gertyth?! WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!" Simon cried, even louder than before.

"He killed her.." Samitha whispered "Gwyneth, sweetheart. You have to run away. Now. There isnt any time to loose. Simon, help her. I have to gather up my strength.. We will slow them down, dearest. Take Arvak, he's the fastest.."

Simon was already digging in a big chest for extra clothes that he quickly packed in a bag with tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Go out to the storeroom Gwen, take all the foodsavings that's in there." He said and pointed with his arm towards the chair where Samitha was sitting. "There's a bag in that corner over there, fill it with as much as you can."

"But.. your savings? The winter is almost here..and.."

"Don't be stupid Gwen." He cut her off.

Gwen just stood there, speechless.

"It's time, darling" the old woman whispered from her corner. "Simon has lived to see his 117th birthday, and I became too old a long time ago."

"NO!" Gwen's voice cracked. "DON'T SAY THAT! YOU HAVE TO RUN, TOO! HE'LL COME HERE SEARCHING FOR ME FIRST THING, YOU CANT JUST SIT HERE AND AWAIT HIS SOLDIERS!"

"Dearest, there's no time. You have to survive, our days are over. This was ment to be." Samitha said, and even though her age had made her almost too weak to speak her voice was still convincing.

"No.." Gwen whispered. "You don't understand.. you guys are.."

"..All that you've got." Simon interrupted her. "We know. And it's probably the hardest thing one could ever overcome, but you have to do it. We'll always be with you, and you know it. Now, get the food and get back here"

Gwen didn't really know why she didn't refuse to, but her legs had a will of their own. Five minutes later the bag was packed to the rim with bread and salted meat.

When she re-entered the backdoor to the inn the room looked different. The walls where shimmering with a strange, blue light, and threads of light kept feeding them with it. The threads ended at Samithas fingertips, and her skin looked (if possible) even paler than usally.

"Samitha..?" Gwen whispered, but the old woman seemed to be out of reach.

Suddenly Samitha looked up, and Gwen couldn't help but let out a frightened squeak when she discovered that the womans eyes were empty. Where the kind, green eyes used to be where now two black holes.

"Don't worry, she's not hurt."

Gwen shrugged, Simon suddenly stood behind her with his hand on her shoulder.

"Here." He said, and reached out a sword. "I'm sorry it's kind of rusty.. Haven't used it in years.." Gwen couldnt believe it, but despite the situation Simon grinned.

"..Atleast it's some kind of defence." He continued. "Arvak is saddled and ready to go, I attached the bag with extra clothes and an extra knife to the sadle. However, there's one last thing before you leave."

He gave her a letter.

"..Don't open this until the time is right."

"..I don't understand..What do you mean, right?"

"You will feel it..it's when.."

A loud crack interrupted him. Screaming voices. Another crack, and the blade of an axe became visible through the door.

"They're here! RUN! Arvak is waiting at the well behind the Clockmoors house, RUN _NOW_!"

And then, confused and scared, already tired from overstraining, she ran.


	3. The Hangover

"Hmmgf..."

Elyse rolled over and hid her face under her pillow, immediately regretting that she woke up. Every time she moved she could swear that her head exploded. When she finally crawled out from her castle of sheets she discovered something even worse.

"Good morning, sexy..Wanna join me for breakfast?"

The man calling her sexy, who wasn't really that sexy himself, gave her a flirty smile standing in the middle of the room only wearing his boxers. She couldn't really think of an polite answer so she figured a hangover-sound would suit just fine.

"Uhhh.." She said, giving him a really sceptical look to make him understand that he had looked _way_ better to her the night before, and that a body looking more likely to be covered in fur than human skin wasn't something she'd want to be closer than maybe a thousand miles away. Expecially not in boxers only.

_Unfortunetly_, she thought, _that brain of his doesn't seem to be human either_

Because judging from his wide smile he didn't understand a thing.

"I had a great night yesterday babe.." He said in a loud voice (maybe so that the people in the hotelroom next door would hear him). "So what do you think? How about another wild night together? You have to meet Duncan, my friend, now THAT'S a real man! Not anywhere me though, heh, don't worry babe you made the right choice.."

She sighed. If she would meet herself drunk it would probably end in a cold blood murder. How could she ever had found this guy sexy? It was mortifying.

"Yeah, about that ..eh.. Ian.."

"My name's Carl!"

"Uh.. Carl, I don't think this will work out, I mean.."

"What won't work? You don't want to meet Duncan? You want to spend the night alone with me, is that it? Aww, sweetie.."

"No, actually, I'm really sorry but I.."

Carl obviously started to get the idea of what was about to happen. His face was turning red in an incredible speed. Elyse sighed again, now she knew what type he was. Staying here 30 more seconds would result in an totally unnecessary and awkward fight.

"Okay. I'm not in the mood to try and be polite when you are, obviously, about to egg on about this in eternity. My excuse would be that I'm, again obviously, hungover. You know why I'm hungover? Because I was fucking drunk yesterday! And when you are drunk you ALWAYS think the ugly-ass people are hot. There, you have it, you are not my man. And put on some clothes, because watching you makes me think that the drunk me are in to animal sex. And thats just.. Ugh, don't make me think about it."

Carl was in the tomatoe-state. 10 more seconds. Elyse slid into her tunic and with the rest of her belongings in her arms she walked out of the room. The moment she slammed the door Carls patience burst.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH, I'LL-.."

But Elyse was already on her way down the stairs, with more important matters to think about. Like where could she get a pick-me-up?

--

The first ray of sunlight hit Gwens face. She looked up and immediately got dazzled. It had been five weeks, and it felt like days since she ran out of food. She had actually planned, even though she felt bad about it, to eat the horse at this time of let's face it - severe crisis. However Arvak died two weeks ago, during an ambush of her fathers assassins. Personally she had managed to run away and hide, but Arvak was left behind and half of her foodsupplies with him.

She didn't know what to do, and she had even less of a clue of where she was. She had seen nothing but rocks for what felt like ages, and she had a feeling she was walking in circles. She wiped away the sweat from her forehead, and sighed while closing her eyes.

"Why did I have to go over the mountains, WHY DID I CHOSE TO DO SO!? Sheesh, clever Gwen." She said, while standing up from her latest, improvised bed. She groaned and rubbed her back, and realised that she had been lying on, oh yes, what else than a ROCK.

"Mmmh, I hate rocks." She mumbled bitterly to herself, and took the bag beside her and flung it over her shoulder. While brushing off dirt from herself, she glanced over the view infront of her. Seeing nothing but mooooore rocks, and a yet blue, cloudless sky, she shivered and looked towards the shadow of a rock.

"I suppose that I will try to go south today, maybe I will find a stream along the way to refill my water suply." She took out the water bottle and shook it a little. All she could hear, was a small splash, as the water hit the side of it. She sighed, and put it back into her bag.

"I'm doomed."

--

Elyse had only spent two days in Bree, but it already felt boring. And after the last nights little incident with Carl she didn't really trusted herself in the choice of nightpartner anymore. Maybe she should just move on to a place with handsomer men (or women) so the risk of ending up with a hairy monster would be a little bit smaller. Plus, her wallet looked as if it had gone on a strict diet, and when she shook it she could only hear the depressing sound of a pair of coins scrambling towards eachother. She sighed. Over all, this day had been a bad day. She needed to get money, fast, and her head was still acing. She leaned back against the house wall behind her, closed her eyes and let her face rest in the sunlight. She took another drag on her pipe and blew out the smoke slowly.

Maybe she needed to change her lifestyle? ..Or not.

"Okay, enough of this shithole already." she mumbled to herself. "I need to get out of here."

It was a nice day though, but the sun was burning hot and she didn't really feel like walking. She walked away from the house wall and started to go towards the gate, looking for a more pleasant way of travelling. That was when she saw the most beautiful horse she had ever seen standing outside the local pub. It was a huge, black stallion and his fur almost looked blue in the sun. Sure, Elyse had "borrowed" a horse or two in the past, but this wasn't just a way of getting around faster, this was probably an angel straight from horse-heaven..if there was such a place. She approached it slowly, and when she reached it she carefully caressed its skin. The stallion looked at her with dark eyes. When Elyse saw the look in his eyes she had to giggle.

"Oh my, aren't you the suspicious one. Well, I dont blame ya'. How about seeing the world with me?"

The horse snorted and looked away.

"Dude, what's with the attidude?" She laughed.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM THE HORSE!"

Elyse shrugged from the surprise. A man rushed out from the inn, straight to her and pushed her away from the horse.

"Get the fuck away from my horse, you thief!"

"What the fuck, man! I was just talking to him!" She hissed and had to hold herself from dragging out her dagger.

"Him?" the owner snorted. "I'd rather say a 'it'! It's only a worthless piece of shit for a horse. Bites everyone, kicking and scaring off everyone I try to sell him to. You should watch out, if I hadn't saved your tight little ass you would've probably been dead by now."

"Wow." She said in a sarcastic voice. "Maybe you should take your own _slobby _ass the fuck away from me or I'll save you from life and all it's miserys."

"Huh? What was that?" the man clearly wasn't used to people standing up to him.

Elyse almost thought he would freak out, since he went to the familiar tomatoe-state in 1 second, but instead he seemed to swallow his anger and said in a hissing voice.

"So you think you can take me on, huh? Don't you think I know who you are? You are that drunken slut that flirted with every guy at the pub last night. The most you could do to me would most likely be a half-bad blowjob."

Even though Elyse didn't really have a tomatoe-state, that was far over the edge. She gave the man a poisonus smile, and before he even had the time to wink she had already struck him. The dagger sank into his chest, deep in between his ribs. He was still having the supercilious grin on his lips, but his eyes looked surprised. Then he caughed, and sank to the ground.

Before anyone around had really understood what just had happened, Elyse pulled her dagger out of the dead body, took the wallet out of his robes, and with a fast cut she had loosen the rope that bound the horse. One jump, and she was sitting on the back of the horse.

"Let's get the fuck outta' here, my friend" She whispered to it and it seemed to understand, because it started to gallop towards the gate in an amazing speed. Before the villagers knew it she was trough the city gate and out of sight.


End file.
